Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Release!!

[David]

Chris' putting DS on his 10 best list is very significant. Fangoria is quite influential in the horror world.
Oh, happy day!
 

[madscntst]

Hey, just getting back to town after being away for the holidays.  Great news about the Fangoria Top Ten!     Hoping it'll make some more lists, too!

[David]

Those who are bummed out by the negative reviews the film got at IMDB should check out the reviews at Amazon:
they're MUCH more positive!

[IluvBarnabas]

Yes, I have looked up at IMBD and seen lots of negative feedback from viewers. And on Facebook as well. And I also noticed there were more favorable reviews on Amazon. On here it's pretty much even on both sides.

I've seen the movie a bunch of times since I got it on Amazon....even posted a review of the film myself on it.

I'm glad to hear the movie has made at least one top ten best list. But try telling some of the people on a Dark Shadows Group on Facebook that the movie wasn't a bomb....they still maintain it was a 'failure' at the Box Office because it didn't top or make enough money anywhere near The Avengers.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Those who are bummed out by the negative reviews the film got at IMDB should check out the reviews at Amazon:
they're MUCH more positive!

When it comes to the actual critics reviews, one thing that some seem to want to choose to ignore is that the film received plenty of positive reviews (it wasn't just the one from EW that we've often referred to here). Was every positive review completely positive? No. But then the fact is also that every negative review wasn't completely negative either. The honest truth is that the film got a mixed critical reaction. Either the critics appreciated what Burton & Company did or they didn't. And, well, that's pretty much the case with most of Burton's films - so the critical reactions to DS was absolutely nothing new - and also nothing that shouldn't have been expected.

The Depp/Burton Dark Shadows played in US theaters for at least 161 days/23 weeks!!

The Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is now out on DVD/Blu-ray!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I'm glad to hear the movie has made at least one top ten best list. But try telling some of the people on a Dark Shadows Group on Facebook that the movie wasn't a bomb....they still maintain it was a 'failure' at the Box Office because it didn't top or make enough money anywhere near The Avengers.

Though as we've said here numerous times, anyone who expected DS to make anywhere near as much as The Avengers made had completely unrealistic expectations. I mean, not even the prognosticators that said DS would make more money domestically than it actually did ever expected its box office take to be on a par with The Avengers. In fact, most predictions were that DS would open in the shadow (no pun intended) of The Avengers and remain in that shadow for the simple fact that DS would not and did not have the same mass box office appeal as The Avengers.

And another thing that we've often stressed numerous times is that it's an absolute rule of fact that when it comes to the vast majority of supernatural films over the past 30+ years, they do not even come close to grossing $100 million, much less anything like the $600 million The Avengers has grossed domestically! Apart from DS, two of the most successful supernatural films in 2012 were Underworld Awakening and The Woman in Black - and they grossed $62,321,039 and $54,333,290, respectively - considerably less than DS. The huge exception to that rule is anything Twilight-related - but as we're well aware, once it became obvious how huge the Twilight franchise was, the thinking on Burton & Company's part was to make DS as far removed from that franchise as possible. Though even if they hadn't decided to go in that direction, that track record of the vast majority of supernatural films in and of itself tells us that without a built-in fan base anywhere near on a par with Twilight, DS was more than likely never going to approach anything like Twilight box office numbers.

Though actually, I suppose that if The Avengers is the box office benchmark to judge by, then despite the fact that The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 has already become the 3rd most successful Twilight film and it has grossed over $280 million domestically, even it must be considered a bomb. And I ask you, how unrealistic is THAT?! 

The Depp/Burton Dark Shadows played in US theaters for at least 161 days/23 weeks!!

The Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is now out on DVD/Blu-ray!!

[jimbo]

The Hollywood Reporter reflects that the movie tanked http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hobbit-django-unchained-les-miserables-407351

EW puts the movie into the flop category http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/12/31/box-office-report-2012/

The movie is not a flop but there is not much we can do to change peoples' minds.

[David]

there are two reasons the film continues to be called a flop:

it cost too much to produce.
and:
it's still perceived as a soap.

The 91 series is considered a flop. never mind that it had ratings considerably higher than most current hit shows, in spite of the Gulf War pre-emptions.

In the eyes of the industry, once a soap....

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well, what can we say about Grady Smith other than he pigheadedly refuses to believe DS wasn't a flop no matter how many people have tried to persuade him otherwise on EW's Web site - and not even when the person attempting the persuading was a fellow EW staff writer. 

As for the Hollywood Reporter, they don't even have their facts straight. The foreign box office figure is way off - and we know that to be so because even though Box Office Mojo didn't continue to tally DS' foreign box office, they did continue to report it. But then it's sad to see what has happened to the state of reporting at the Hollywood Reporter (as well as Variety) these days. Who can forget how many times they described Vicki as a "waitress." And while maybe there is a very slight chance that in the script Vicki did somehow work as a waitress before going to Collinsport and that part was cut, from the way the film as we've seen it stands, there doesn't seem to be any impression or implications that was the case. Sadly, as some suspected back when the waitress reports were being circulated, it looks more like it was a case the writers of those reports jumped to conclusions based on the 1967 descriptions of Maggie from the original show, which was a lamebrained thing to do because some of the characters (particularly ones like Willie and Carolyn) were changed from their original series' counterparts, and it's not like it wasn't publicized that changes were being made to the characters. There would just seem to be no way around it that there's poor reporting involved at the Hollywood Reporter.

And it probably also shouldn't go without mention that both of those linked articles choose to ignore that back in September Tim Burton went on the record in the New York Times as stating that DS had already made its money back and then some - and that was while it was still playing in many foreign markets (as well as in (at least) Hooksett, NH in the US ).  But then, despite facts to the contrary, there are still those who insist that the original DS was canceled due to low ratings, that NoDS was a box office bomb, and that the '91 DS was a ratings disaster, so what can you say? 

The Depp/Burton Dark Shadows played in US theaters for at least 161 days/23 weeks!!

The Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is now out on DVD/Blu-ray!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

it cost too much to produce.

What a lot of these reporters seem to forget is that the guesstimates they use are not facts, they're guesses as to budget (hence why they're called "guesstimates") - and they can often be way off. And as we've mentioned with regard to DS, the guesstimated budget for the film has been reported as $100 million, $125 million, $150 million, $175 million, and even more in a few places. But as I pointed out back in September when the Burton remarks about the film having made back its money surfaced, the real budget for the film had to be much closer to the $100 million mark or else there would have been no way the film could have already been making a profit at that point with any of the other guesstimates. But of course, each reporter is going to chose their own guesstimate based on what they want to write about any given film, regardless of the info that may have come out that shows their guesstimate to be questionable.    (And by example, our EW friend Grady Smith chose to cite the largest guesstimated budget for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance when he did a hatchet job on that film on the EW Web site.)

The Depp/Burton Dark Shadows played in US theaters for at least 161 days/23 weeks!!

The Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is now out on DVD/Blu-ray!!

[David]

Well, F--- them!
The film made a profit, and the comic books, audio dramas & DVDs continue to do well.
We have our little franchise to enjoy for as long as we want, so to hell with them all!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Changing to a much more pleasant topic regarding the film, yet another batch of 7 new screen caps and set ups have been posted to the film's Complete This Phrase / Fill In The Blank(s) board. And as always, be careful of spoilers if you haven't already seen the film. 

And as to one of the captures, is it just me, or does it look like even Depp's stand-in had the dark circles around his eyes:


(Click here for a 1280X720 version)

The Depp/Burton Dark Shadows played in US theaters for at least 161 days/23 weeks!!

The Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is now out on DVD/Blu-ray!!

[Cousin_Barnabas]

That's no stand-in, MB.  That's Edward Cullen!  Didn't you know he made a cameo appearance in this?   

[Mysterious Benefactor]

A reminder that the People's Choice Awards are on tonight at 9pm ET on CBS and that both Depp and the DS film are nominated. Not that we should expect the film to win, but Depp probably has a chance. Though even if it/he doesn't win, it could be interesting to see if they show clips from the film, and if so, what type.

The Depp/Burton Dark Shadows played in US theaters for at least 161 days/23 weeks!!

The Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is now out on DVD/Blu-ray!!

[madscntst]

Thanks for the reminder, MB!  My hopes aren't too high, but I'm game to watch, and as you say, there will probably be a clip or two